Page 13 of Catch of a Lifetime
He had learned a couple of important thingsaboutphones, though.
The most important thing he’d learned about phones was that I got fussy if he dragged me into the water when I had one in my pocket. I’d ruined six different handsets over the years.
The second most important thing he’d learned was that stealing Jerry’s was always a big hit, guaranteed to have Jerry running after him, flapping his arms and yelling.
He still wouldn’t let me slide off him, and we were having a staredown about it as I held the phone clear of the water, when it rang.
I glanced at the screen. “It’s Jerry,” I said to Dave, and answered “Jerry. Did you get the quad bike?”
“Yep. I’m on my way back from the harbour. Calling to let you know I’ve got to swing by the petrol station first and fuel up. How are you doing down there? Tide’s coming in.”
“I noticed.” Water hissed past me and swirled around my waist. I gritted my teeth. Shit, that was cold. Dave shifted his grip to hold my hips, keeping me steady.
“Should be with you in about forty minutes,” Jerry said, and hung up.
In forty minutes, my phone would definitely be underwater, along with the rest of me.
The next wave rolled in. Dave gazed up at me through the water. He wasn’t smiling any more. His face was tight with pain.
“I know,” I said nonsensically, and reached down to cup his cheek. “We’ll get you home and comfy soon. Just hold on.”
He vibrated quietly back at me.
The wave receded and I took the opportunity to have another good look at the wounds on his torso. My god. I swallowed hard. “What the hell did this to you?”
It was a rhetorical question. It was clear that whatever had done it was something enormous, something with sharp bitsandsucky bits, all of which added up to my own personal nightmare: giant squid.
Without quite making contact, I traced the deeply bruised flesh at his waist and where it arced up across his obliques. Huge, round, sucker bruises. I spread my fingers wide and hovered my hand above the most distinct mark. It looked like a tattoo.
Did…?
Did squid or octopuses with suckers that big even exist?
…was it a kraken? No. No, kraken weren’t real, they?—
I met Dave’s dark eyes, fixed on mine.
Right. My life partner was a merman.
Yes, kraken probably existed.
Horrifying though all the bruises were, especially the ones with the deep punctures around the circumference, as if he’d been repeatedly shot with a nail gun, it was the brutal gashes that made me panic.
“Dave,” I said in desperation.
I was going to have nightmares. I mean, I was sure that Dave was going to have nightmares, I didn’t want to make this all about me, but…
Holy shit.
Dave sang a soft little note at me and stroked my back.
The waves kept rolling in. Once he was submerged even when the tide drew out, and the water had crept up to the middle of my chest, I decided that it was time to get him further up the beach.
Also, my arm was getting tired from holding my phone clear.
I did my best to slide off him without jostling him too much. I did not succeed. He let out a pained billow of bubbles, along with a sharp pulse of sound that I felt in the water around me.
Leaning to the side had obviously pulled at his wounds. I decided to lean forwards, dunk myself completely, and let the next big incoming wave wash me off him.
